Before you think I’m obsessed with dry, boring organizy stuff, think about it. When you work alone, it’s easy to go unconscious about what your work flow is really like. I wanted to be at least partly aware – with a chance of productivity.

Last week, I also promised to check in today about how it went and what I discovered.

How it went

The simple act of writing down the time when I switched activities was quite illuminating! After 5 days, I’m more mindful of what I’m doing moment to moment. Sometimes writing things down even helped me stop frittering and get back on task. That wasn’t the intention, but a nice side effect.

Between doing this process and writing the God List this week, I’ve felt really productive and gotten many more things accomplished than I normally do. It’s actually been a banner week – and even my mastermind buds are impressed!

What I discovered

• The cats and turtles are ADD nightmares. They interrupt me at least 3-4x/day. In fact, I’m typing one0handed right now with a kitten in my other arm. I love them, but they’re not productivity allies.
• I go on email, facebook or twitter to get info – and get sidetracked by other grabby things. “Oh, I’ll just check to see who emailed/tweeted/messaged me.” Riiight.
• I think I might over-edit my writing. I might even be a bit perfectionistic (if you are related to me, you’re not allowed to comment on this). ; )
• There are a couple of people I check in with during my day, just to say how I’m doing and find out how they are.
• Wrapping-up after meeting with a client takes longer than I thought.
• I do personal stuff during my work day (like send messages to old friends from high school).
• In 5 days, I worked 48.75 hours.
• I sometimes spend a lot of time/energy trying to force myself to work on something that isn’t flowing, but not actually get much done. Want an example?

The following is an example of me trying to edit a webpage when I really didn’t want to:

10:50  Start working on the web page
10:56  Check calendar
10:57  Snack
11:05  Twitter, read a blog
11:12  Back to working on web page
11:30 Twitter (Argh! Don’t want to work on that page!)
11:33  Back to web page
11:39  Facebook
11:41  Back to web page
12:05 Twitter
12:06  Facebook
12:08  Back to web page

Fortunately, I did actually complete it. You can see for yourself if you like:

In addition to productivity, the analysis yielded some interesting data on my use of Twitter and Facebook.

• In 5 days, I spent 271 minutes on Facebook and Twitter (roughly 54 minutes a day).
• Some-to-most of that time was business-related or networking time.
• On average, I go on Twitter 7 times a day and Facebook 5 times.
• My time on each site is usually 1-4 minutes – with rare 20-30 minute distraction marathons.
• I don’t usually go on either site before 11am (which happens to be my most productive time of day).
• I usually check Twitter before Facebook

The moral of the story

The goal here isn’t to judge what I’ve discovered. As I mentioned in the other post, the goal is simply to be curious – and notice if there are changes I want to make.

Same for you. : ) If you’d like to discover how much time you spend of social networking or what your most productive times of the day are, give this process a whirl. Be gentle with yourself about your discoveries.

Upcoming changes

Based on what I’ve observed so far, there are 3 things I’d like to tweak and see what happens:

1. Client appointments: Schedule a half-hour after each client appointment for wrapping up notes and transitioning.
2. Work hours: Keep the work day to 9 hours, including breaks, as I get less productive as the day wears on.
3. Stuckness: If I’m feeling stuck on a project – instead of twittering – I’ll try walking away from it for a little while, jumping around, or connecting with a bizbud to talk it out.

I’ll play with these for a while and see what happens. How about you? What’s your next step?

Thoughts? Yeah, buts? Me, toos?

I’m tracking my time. Conventional wisdom says that it isn’t the big things in life that suck away our time, but the smallest, barely noticeable ones.

This week, I’m testing that theory. I tweeted about it today and enough people asked that I’m explaining it here in detail.

Warning 1: I issue a challenge at the end of this post. It might be fun.

Warning 2: If you’re hoping for sophistication, look elsewhere. Low-tech suggestions follow.

You’re self-employed. Why are you doing a time analysis?

Some days I work my tail off and have nothing to show for it. I’m 100% ON at my desk for 7-9 hours and I get -squat- completed. And I have no idea why. My business is my livelihood, though, and I have big goals for the year.

Because I’m nerdy like that, I’m doing an analysis. I have a theory about where the time is going, but I’d like to get good, raw data first before I make any adjustments.

The method:

I’m ignoring the other conventional wisdom that says to write down what you do every 15 minutes. I have ADD. I will forget what I did 15 minutes ago. I will also forget 15 minutes have passed. But my ego will want to fill in the blanks later which elicits useless, made-up information.

Instead, I’m writing the time when I switch from one activity to the next. It looks like this:

You probably can’t read it, so here’s a sample:

• 7:56   Prep mailing
• 8:07   Bead making frustration
• 8:13   Clean up cat stuff
• 8:15   Facebook – re: cats
• 8:16   Back to mailing
• 8:22  Out to mailbox

You get the picture. I did it yesterday and have two whole pages of information. Nerdy bliss!

The key:

Curiosity is the key. If I tried doing this with an attitude of judgment and self-hatred, it would only hurt me and I’d quit. Instead, I’m practicing being genuinely curious about how I work, what I do, where my attention goes and how often.

Already I’ve noticed that I switch tasks every 10 minutes or less. I almost wrote “I switch tasks frequently”, but even “frequently” is a judgment. Sticking to facts makes me more curious. I start wondering, “How many minutes, exactly?” Which elicits information I can use.

A challenge (if you’re up for it)

I’m going to post in a week to share what I discovered from this process and what tweaks I might make to my work flow.

If you’re willing to play along, do a time analysis one day next week – any kind you like. Then reply to my post on Friday to share what you learned.

Would you like to play?

Shall we explore why? Let’s start with a fun little pie graph.

.

Let’s say that this is an image of what an ideal day looks like for the average creative person. You might not agree with everything there, but it’s a stand-in for the kind of life you’d like to have. Balanced, fulfilling, sane.

With me so far?

Okay, good. Let’s say that you have this balanced schedule in mind most of the time as your ideal in life.

Lots of perfectly intelligent people believe they can keep the same schedule while also entertaining, traveling, shopping for gifts, etc. It’ll all work out somehow. “Oh, I’m planning to work on my So-And-So and finish it over the holiday break.” (Sound familiar?) And then January 1 rolls around and they’re internally thrashing themselves for not having completed anything.

Forgetting reality

Time is kind of like the Pauli exclusion principle: two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. You can’t be working 100% on your business when you’re trying to relax and visit.

The chart above is a circle to represent the fact that there are a finite number of hours in the day. 24 to be exact. In that first wheel, the “work” slice of time has 8 hours. Now, in the big holiday celebration scenario, watch what happens:
.

There’s still balance, it’s just different balance. Work goes down to a measly 3 hours. Instead of solid productivity, those work hours might be an hour here, 30 minutes there checking email.

The trade-off? All the other fun things like more time with family and friends! More yummy food and hanging out snacking on hors d’ouvres! Yay for holidays!

Then why does it feel so not-fun?

Holiday stress comes from not knowing how you’ll fit it all in. From rushing in blindly with a can-do-attitude. You can’t have all those activities and a normal work life. Or you’ll spend half of January recovering.

You can’t. You can’t fit it all in. There isn’t enough time.

So, let’s suppose that you want to enjoy your break and work less (or not at all). If that’s true, then lower your standards. Cut in half (or more) whatever it is you’re planning to do work-wise over the holiday break.

This way, you actually get a chance to be where you are. You can actually enjoy the people you’re with. You might be truly present (what a gift!) and even relax for a change.

Holiday “breaks” don’t happen by themselves.

You have to treat your holiday break like a pie. (Mmmm. Pie…)

Imagine your ideal work day as a yummy pie – and then imagine using a lovely silver serving utensil to cut out a slice. Decide how big a portion of spaciousness you want. Go ahead.

Decide now what work and to-dos are optional before it starts getting crazy. Then set that slice of work aside. It’ll keep. When the holidays are over you can munch on it all you like.

Persuaded?

What will you cut out over the holidays so you enjoy them more? And for bonus points, do share what kind of pie you’d like to have!

We’ve all got something–or maybe a few somethings–that we do to get our day started.

I’m not referring to the “roll over and hastily slap the snooze bar of the alarm clock” stuff. Necessary evils like alarm clocks nothwithstanding, we’ve all got a few actions we take that move us into the mindspace of “Ahhh… NOW my day has begun.”

Here’s what I do to begin my day

What works well for me:

Coffee. It’s a classic day-starter, but I enjoy it so much that it’s more than just a quick dose of caffeine for me. It’s a mug of warm Welcome-To-Your-Day refreshment. I always use a favorite mug, one that makes me smile when I use it. And I really revel in those first sips.

Opening my moleskine. The vital pieces of my day, appointments and must-dos, are kept in a bright red moleskine datebook that sits on my desk. I close it up at the end of each day, and at the beginning of each day, I remove the elastic band that holds the book closed, reach for the smooth ribbon that marks the page I’m on, and hear the little crackle of the book’s spine as I open it to reveal the day’s VIPs: Very Important aPpointments. It lets me know the day is really moving forward.

Greeting my vice presidents. I’m a solopreneur, and my vice presidents are my dogs. And when I sit down in my office chair, both of my VPs run over to me for a quick play session. It’s only a couple of minutes of playing tug or fetch before I turn to the computer and they turn to their naps, but it’s a vital part of our routines.

What I’m working on:

Being at the beck and call of my email. I admit it–I’m an email junkie. I love to check my email, and I can’t wait to check it first thing when I sit down at the computer. But giving in to that urge also means that I’m starting my day be being completely reactive to other peoples’ needs and messages, rather than being reflective about my own needs and plans for the day.

Eating breakfast while checking email. I’m so anxious to check email that I rarely finish eating breakfast before giving in to the urge to see what Gmail has in store for me. Of course, once I do that, I stop focusing on the delicious, nourishing food that I’m consuming, and turn my focus to the to-dos, newsletters, and flood of information I’m consuming instead.

What do YOU do to begin your day?

What works really well for you? What are you working on?

When you’re self-employed, the time clock doesn’t dictate when you punch out.

Ending the work day is something that many people struggle with. It’s a topic that came up last week at the Superlicious Diva Business Day, and I realized that it’s a big problem for me, too.

Here’s what I doing to stop working at the end of the day

What is currently working well for me:

Schedule something at the end of the day. At 6ish every evening, Inspired Spouse and I eat dinner together. It’s an agreement. Not only do we both enjoy it, when I know dinner’s waiting – or it’s my turn to make it – I just stop working. It’s more important to me to keep that commitment than it is to goof around on Facebook.

Find other things to do with myself in the evening and on weekends. Not too long ago, gave myself the evening off and I paced around anxiously trying to figure out what to *do* with myself. It’s laughable now, but I was seriously stressed at the time. What do I do if I’m not working?

My current strategy is having stuff to focus on besides work. I’ve got a big stack of books to veg out with in the evenings. And, on weekends, Inspired Spouse and I talk about and negotiate what chores we’ll do and what fun activities we’d like to partake in. Last weekend, for example, we went to the Aumsville Corn Festival (fantastic!) and saw the movie Julie & Julia (delightful!). A year ago, I was not doing this kind of fun stuff, so this is serious progress.

What I’m currently working on

I’m working very long hours. That’s just the fact. I’m not even working on it yet. All I’m doing at this point is noticing (which is, in itself, powerful).

What I notice is that most days I’m at my desk by 7am and I usually work until about 6pm, 3 days a week. Every night, I usually end up back in my office after dinner to answer email, do twitter and Facebook stuff, and answer blog posts. I like doing this – but some days I feel exhausted.

In total, including my part-time job, (grabs calculator) I’m working about 72 hours a week. Whew! No wonder!

Creating boundaries around my work time. This is the thing I’d like to work on most. I’m not exactly sure what my needs are yet since I’m still in the Noticing Phase. But I know that if I stay open and curious, I’ll get clarity about what to do next.

I’ll keep you posted.

What do YOU do to stop working at the end of the day?

What works really well for you? What are you working on?

Share your insights and ideas! Your comments on your own process are welcome. I also request kindly, firmly, that you not give advice to me or others unless it’s specifically requested. This makes exploring safe and learning possible for every reader.